eucatastrophe n. eucatastrophic [ < Gr. eu, "good" and catastrophe Coined by JRR Tolkien.] 1. (in a narrative) The event that shifts the balance in favor of the protagonist when all seems lost. 2. A happy ending.

September 2014

09/20/2014

For thousands of years, human beings have been altering the genes of animals and plants in the search for tastier food, higher yields, stronger resistance to pests and weeds, and desirable traits. In the past, this has been done by saving seeds that come from those organisms that have more of the desired qualities. In the modern agricultural era, scientists isolate genes that have these traits and “share” them with seeds that have other traits. If they get a particularly beneficial combination, they patent them. And, to keep people from making off with their seeds and reproducing them, they render them sterile so that you have to buy the seed every year. The money can them be used to research and develop new types of seeds, “better” seeds, or simply more seeds for more markets. The money can also be used to advertise the seeds, and lobby legislatures to allow the process to go on without interruption.

The ancillary argument of GMO OMG is simply that GMO foods are not good for us - Or at least that GMO crops sprayed with pesticides are not good for us (a few lovely pictures of rat tumors will cure you of complacency). The central argument however is simply that GM foods should be labelled. We should be told when we are about to bite into a nice juicy food item made from GMOs.

In July of 2016, Vermont stands to become the first state to require GMO labelling on all foods sold here.

Vermont Act 120 would not prohibit the sale of GMOs. It would simply require them to be transparently identified.

“This act requires food that is intended for human consumption and that is offered for sale on or after July 1, 2016 to be labeled as produced from genetic engineering if the food was entirely or partially produced with genetic engineering. The act also prohibits a manufacturer of a food produced entirely or in part from genetic engineering from labeling the product on the package, in signage, or in advertising as “natural,” “naturally made,” “naturally grown,” “all natural,” or any other similar words.”

Fortunately for me, I have a farmers market that assembles in my front yard all summer.

Question for Comment: The suggestion that is made by this movie is that these new sorts of foods that we are eating will have long term negative effects on our health. In the short term though, we humans seem to have a hard time caring about long term-effects. Worrying about long term things is something that most of us “short-term-stressed” people have a hard time getting to. I wonder if it has always been this way?